diff --git a/workflow/artifacts/gcs/gcs.go b/workflow/artifacts/gcs/gcs.go
index 9d62ce609b97..70960640a474 100644
--- a/workflow/artifacts/gcs/gcs.go
+++ b/workflow/artifacts/gcs/gcs.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"io/ioutil"
+	"net/url"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"strings"
@@ -14,12 +15,14 @@ import (
 	"github.com/argoproj/pkg/file"
 	log "github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 	"golang.org/x/oauth2/google"
+	"google.golang.org/api/googleapi"
 	"google.golang.org/api/iterator"
 	"google.golang.org/api/option"
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/wait"
 
 	"github.com/argoproj/argo-workflows/v3/errors"
 	wfv1 "github.com/argoproj/argo-workflows/v3/pkg/apis/workflow/v1alpha1"
+	waitutil "github.com/argoproj/argo-workflows/v3/util/wait"
 	"github.com/argoproj/argo-workflows/v3/workflow/artifacts/common"
 )
 
@@ -28,7 +31,41 @@ type ArtifactDriver struct {
 	ServiceAccountKey string
 }
 
-var _ common.ArtifactDriver = &ArtifactDriver{}
+var (
+	_            common.ArtifactDriver = &ArtifactDriver{}
+	defaultRetry                       = wait.Backoff{Duration: time.Second * 2, Factor: 2.0, Steps: 5, Jitter: 0.1}
+)
+
+// from https://github.com/googleapis/google-cloud-go/blob/master/storage/go110.go
+func isTransientGCSErr(err error) bool {
+	if err == io.ErrUnexpectedEOF {
+		return true
+	}
+	switch e := err.(type) {
+	case *googleapi.Error:
+		// Retry on 429 and 5xx, according to
+		// https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/exponential-backoff.
+		return e.Code == 429 || (e.Code >= 500 && e.Code < 600)
+	case *url.Error:
+		// Retry socket-level errors ECONNREFUSED and ENETUNREACH (from syscall).
+		// Unfortunately the error type is unexported, so we resort to string
+		// matching.
+		retriable := []string{"connection refused", "connection reset"}
+		for _, s := range retriable {
+			if strings.Contains(e.Error(), s) {
+				return true
+			}
+		}
+	case interface{ Temporary() bool }:
+		if e.Temporary() {
+			return true
+		}
+	}
+	if e, ok := err.(interface{ Unwrap() error }); ok {
+		return isTransientGCSErr(e.Unwrap())
+	}
+	return false
+}
 
 func (g *ArtifactDriver) newGCSClient() (*storage.Client, error) {
 	if g.ServiceAccountKey != "" {
@@ -62,19 +99,19 @@ func newGCSClientDefault() (*storage.Client, error) {
 
 // Load function downloads objects from GCS
 func (g *ArtifactDriver) Load(inputArtifact *wfv1.Artifact, path string) error {
-	err := wait.ExponentialBackoff(wait.Backoff{Duration: time.Second * 2, Factor: 2.0, Steps: 5, Jitter: 0.1},
+	err := waitutil.Backoff(defaultRetry,
 		func() (bool, error) {
 			log.Infof("GCS Load path: %s, key: %s", path, inputArtifact.GCS.Key)
 			gcsClient, err := g.newGCSClient()
 			if err != nil {
 				log.Warnf("Failed to create new GCS client: %v", err)
-				return false, err
+				return isTransientGCSErr(err), err
 			}
 			defer gcsClient.Close()
 			err = downloadObjects(gcsClient, inputArtifact.GCS.Bucket, inputArtifact.GCS.Key, path)
 			if err != nil {
 				log.Warnf("Failed to download objects from GCS: %v", err)
-				return false, err
+				return isTransientGCSErr(err), err
 			}
 			return true, nil
 		})
@@ -161,17 +198,17 @@ func listByPrefix(client *storage.Client, bucket, prefix, delim string) ([]strin
 
 // Save an artifact to GCS compliant storage, e.g., uploading a local file to GCS bucket
 func (g *ArtifactDriver) Save(path string, outputArtifact *wfv1.Artifact) error {
-	err := wait.ExponentialBackoff(wait.Backoff{Duration: time.Second * 2, Factor: 2.0, Steps: 5, Jitter: 0.1},
+	err := waitutil.Backoff(defaultRetry,
 		func() (bool, error) {
 			log.Infof("GCS Save path: %s, key: %s", path, outputArtifact.GCS.Key)
 			client, err := g.newGCSClient()
 			if err != nil {
-				return false, err
+				return isTransientGCSErr(err), err
 			}
 			defer client.Close()
 			err = uploadObjects(client, outputArtifact.GCS.Bucket, outputArtifact.GCS.Key, path)
 			if err != nil {
-				return false, err
+				return isTransientGCSErr(err), err
 			}
 			return true, nil
 		})
diff --git a/workflow/artifacts/gcs/gcs_test.go b/workflow/artifacts/gcs/gcs_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..e70361fb957e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/workflow/artifacts/gcs/gcs_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+package gcs
+
+import (
+	"errors"
+	"fmt"
+	"io"
+	"net/url"
+	"testing"
+
+	"google.golang.org/api/googleapi"
+)
+
+type tlsHandshakeTimeoutError struct{}
+
+func (tlsHandshakeTimeoutError) Temporary() bool { return true }
+func (tlsHandshakeTimeoutError) Error() string   { return "net/http: TLS handshake timeout" }
+
+func TestIsTransientGCSErr(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, test := range []struct {
+		err         error
+		shouldretry bool
+	}{
+		{&googleapi.Error{Code: 0}, false},
+		{&googleapi.Error{Code: 429}, true},
+		{&googleapi.Error{Code: 518}, true},
+		{&googleapi.Error{Code: 599}, true},
+		{&url.Error{Op: "blah", URL: "blah", Err: errors.New("connection refused")}, true},
+		{io.ErrUnexpectedEOF, true},
+		{&tlsHandshakeTimeoutError{}, true},
+		{fmt.Errorf("Test unwrapping of a temporary error: %w", &googleapi.Error{Code: 500}), true},
+		{fmt.Errorf("Test unwrapping of a non-retriable error: %w", &googleapi.Error{Code: 400}), false},
+	} {
+		got := isTransientGCSErr(test.err)
+		if got != test.shouldretry {
+			t.Errorf("%+v: got %v, want %v", test, got, test.shouldretry)
+		}
+	}
+}